Red Dead Redemption's Amazing Final Act ***MAJOR SPOILERS***

***WARNING!!!***
***MAJOR SPOILERS!!!***
***DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T BEATEN THE GAME!!!***




***LAST WARNING!!!***


Like most of the gaming world this past couple weeks, I have been enthralled by the masterpiece that is Rockstar Games's Red Dead Redemption and I must say, if this game doesn't win every Game of the Year award I can't wait to see what else is coming this year. 2010 has been an unusually strong year for video games what with Mass Effect 2, Super Street Fighter 4, Metro 2033, Alan Wake, God of War 3, & Heavy Rain just to name a few, but RDR stands head-and-shoulders above all of them. (and in January I was so sure Mass Effect 2 was a shoe-in for GOTY). And I'm not even a huge western fan (HBO's Deadwood withholding)!

So after playing RDR for somewhere near 40+ hours, I have finally come to the sad ending (of the main story at least, there is much side-work left to do) which came by surprise after not one, but two fake-out endings? How many of us thought the game was over after finally catching up with Dutch? I know I put down my controller and was waiting for the credits to roll when BAM! more story! Not just more story though, a whole fourth act. I figured we'd get to meet John's wife Abigail and son Jack via a short cut scene and the game would conclude. Instead we get to enjoy John's new hard-fought rancher life and actually do mission's with his long lost family. It was a sweet conclusion to a wonderful story.

I actually thought the story was going to wrap up there, with John growing old on his ranch. I figured Rockstar would probably come out with some DLC in a couple months adding a bit more interaction between them all. Maybe bring back some characters from the past, Abraham Reyes, or maybe Landon Rickets. I guess I forgot this is a Western and we all know how a Western has to end. It's not really that different from most horror movies.

But it doesn't end there either!!! Rockstar actually gives us the ability to play as Jack four years in the future. And for those of us smart enough (or clever enough to go online) to visit Blackwater at least once more, a chance to serve cold that much needed vengeance on the real villain in the story (at least from John's perspective).

In conclusion, I just want to say good work Rockstar. No, AMAZING work! I was never really a fan before this. I always thought the GTA series was kind of childish and I never really got into it (besides the very first one which really doesn't have much in common with later entries). All other designers take note: this is how you conclude a game. A lot of other games would have relegated the entire 4th act to a non-interactive cut-scene and then let the credits role. Why? In a field so devoted to interactivity, why should the endings be any less. Rockstar, I'm eagerly awaiting some RDR DLC and hopefully an RDR2.